Running and Marines

Stupid Workouts - a couple weeks ago I decided to jump into one of my buddy’s workouts. What he described seemed easy enough. Down hill repeats. He had 3 weeks to go before his Leadville Traill 100 debut and downhill running is not his specialty. We met in a trail parking lot, ran 20 minutes to to the top of a hill and then started our workout. We ran 10 x 1/4 mile down the trail and walked back to the start. I really enjoyed the first 3 or 4. On each I picked a line I wouldn’t normally choose challenging myself to be comfortable on any footing. All was going fine. On 4-8 the workout started to get to me. First of all my friend is the ultimate half stepper. He will never let you pull along side, he always has to be a half step ahead. He’s also notorious for doing workouts too hard. So here I was feeling quite good pulling up along side of him just to have fun. Every time I did that he would surge ahead. I finally gave up at 8 and simply jogged the last two. It’s been 3 weeks and my IT Band still feels those down hills. I should have called it a day the first time he half stepped me and just run on the trails while he finished his workout.

Other than doing stupid workouts It’s been a great week. My wife is out of the country in the Middle East. She’s having a blast making new friends and seeing a new country. I highly suggest you go to that part of the world. The people are incredibly warm and friendly. Our son is in a completely different part of the world doing his work as a US Marine. That’s him on the left in the picture. Because he’s off doing his work contact with him is rare. But this week he and I have been in constant contact. He texts me any time he has down time. Almost all of the banter has been about our mutual love for music. New Tool songs on Spotify or the bus driver blasting Green Day. He’s gone for at least 4 more months. It’s hard knowing he’s doing really dangerous things while he sleeps on the ground where who knows what kind of snake and spider lurks. It’s always great to hear from him no matter what the topic is. Just knowing he’s ok makes me sleep a little deeper. 

Back the training. I did a MAF test this week. I haven’t done one in a really long time. I ran 10:15 miles for 4 miles. That’s kind of pitiful for me but it is what it is. Thing think I do know is at that effort I can go for a really long time. My goal is to comfortable do a trail 50K in November. I’ll have to up my running distance over the next few months and the only way to really do that is to slow down first. Next MAF test is in 3 weeks.